Days Forty-Three and Forty-Four: Things really do happen in Threes

After leaving Alex.R behind we all felt a little deflated but our spirits were not to be dampened for too long. The sun was setting casting a violet hue over the sandy plains, and just as we were deciding when we should stop for the night we came across three other rally cars at the side of the road. These belonged to George and Matt (Hit The Road Yak), Kit (Modern Nomads) and a third team who I can't recall the names of as they had to leave extremely early the next morning in order to try to reach UB in time for a flight.

We set up camp next to them with the intention to posibly add to our convoy and travel together the following day, however, the Yak affectionately known as Doris, was having problems.

The next morning we decided to stick around and help the other team get going as we now had no major time constraint. In a nutshell there was a problem with their immobilizer which meant that they couldn't start the car unless they could somehow bypass it. Essentially they would need to hotwire the car. They spent the morning pulling wires out from under the steering wheel, taping things together not really expecting anything to come of it and suspecting that they might have to get a tow back to Khovd. Eventually it was time for the moment of truth and they tried to start the car. It didn't work. Before admitting defeat and calling The Adventurists to arrange a tow they had one last go and discovered  that a connection had come loose next to the battery. Hoping that this might have been part of the problem, they connected it back up and tried again. Miraculously it purred into life!

Our convoy now consisting of 6 people and 4 cars set off towards Altai intending to go via some 15,000 year old cave paintings. I must admit we were expecting the roads to be a lot worse given the warning we had received from the guys at the campsite, but we sensed that perhaps these terrors were still to come. We did come across two rivers that we had to ford, but they were no where near the waist height described previously. In hindsight we suspect that we must have crossed the river further down due to our detour to the cave paintings which may have spared our cars the worst of the roads.

We were told that we needed to head towards a small village and then from there we would be able to hire someone to take us to see the paintings. When we arrived we were lucky enough to stumble across Andrew, an American Peace Corps representative who had been in Mongolia for around 16 months and spoke very good Mongolian. After speaking with him for some time, he told us that the host family he was staying with would be able to take us to the cafe paintings for a fee and that when we returned he would let us stay in his Ger for the night. This seems like a much better option than, either trying to drive there ourselves, or trying to negotiate with another Mongolian without the help of someone who could translate for us.We drove our cars into their little courtyard, seperated from the road by walls made out of mud bricks, and all 8 of us (6 ralliers, Andrew for translating and the driver) piled into the 5 seater 4x4 (two in the front seat and two in the boot!).

The drive was around 45 minutes and getting alternative transport over these horrendous roads really highlighted how unsuitable our little cars are for these sorts of terrain. The cave paintings were not numerous but interesting none-the-less and we spent the rest of the evening discovering them in the dark caves amongst the dusty bird poo.

We got back to the Ger at about 10pm and true to his word Andrew let all 6 of us pile in and sleep on the floor. Due to the incredible hospitality of Andrew and the Mongolian family we took a long time to day our goodbyes and take our photos, and we didn't end up back behind the wheel until about midday. Having not driven very far the previous day we planned to make a good dent in the Kilometers towards Altai but as the nature of the Rally goes, this didn't really happen.

The climate had changed again, the closer we get towards the desert the stronger the sun. Around lunchtime we all started to get very hot and hungry and although we perhaps should have continued, our two new convoy recruits wanted to go back in search of a shop for supplies. Alex, Justin and I carried on in search of the river that the map promised, but after driving for a while hunger took over and we gave up and stopped to wait for the others. A few hours passed and they didn't turn up. We concluded they must have had some sort of problem so we packed up and headed back. We had only driven for about 10 minutes when we saw them immerging through a dust cloud on the horizon. In fact there were 4 cars now driving towards us, and as they pulled up we could see that they have managed to find two other rally cars! Joining us on the road were Mad-Lab and Geekout.

Whilst we had stopped to chat, as is now often the case a few of the boys decided to play Rocky Rock. One of those games that at home you would never think of conjering up, but in the middle of the desert seems to be the best thing since sliced bread. Essentially all you have to do is try to hit a designated rock in the distance with a smaller rock. Time in the desert must be testing our sanity as one thing led to another and Alex thought playing Rocky Rock with a car would be a good idea. Although intended to perhaps just scuff the bumper, it hit the corner of Kit's rear windscreen with a crack and shattered the whole thing. Luckily, Kit had a plastic UV filter covering the whole of the widscreen so all the glass was kept in place but it would still need Duct taping to ensure that the glass wouldn't fly out. After the drama (which some of us found more amusing than others) we continued on.

Even though we hadn't managed to cover much ground due to us all loosing each other at lunchtime, we thought we should probably try to find somewhere to camp within the hour as the sun was setting and we didn't particularly want to drive in the dark. The roads were now not full of potholes, but long wide sandy rumble strips that could only be taken at speed, otherwise the car would shake so much it felt like your very skeleton was being dismantled as well as the car itself.

A few of our newly formed convoy were checking bits and pieces on their cars, so a couple of us headed on in order to find somewhere to camp. The landscape is now flat sandy plains with the occasional shrub, surrounded by grey, and snowcapped mountains in the distance. Although very beautiful, this does not lend itself well to a concealed campsite. This isn't really an issue in Mongolia though as it appears you can camp wherever you wish, so after little while of driving, we just turned off the road and got out the kettle.

Minutes later the rest of the teams began arriving, but it seemed that Kit had had another accident on the way back. He had swerved to avoid a pothole, but the back of his car span out causing the whole road to be covered by a sand screen and him to skid round in a 180 getting gravel in his tyres. Two of his tyres needed changing but other than that things could have gone a lot worse. He arrived back at the campsite in one piece, but a little annoyed and now determined to light a fire.

We all positioned the 6 cars in a large circle and began to set up our stoves and chairs for dinner. Kit proceeded to remove a log from his car and began chopping it into peices with a large axe. At this point a few of us mentioned that things tend to happen in threes and that perhaps he shouldn't be weilding an axe and thrusting it towards his feet with such force but he merely laughed it off. I decided not to watch and busied myself with food for a while, and thankfully when I resurfaced there was a neatly chopped pile of wood in the centre of the circle and no blood or footless toes. I saw Kit trying to light it and offered him some windproof matches that we had obtained from another rally team but he decided petrol would be a quicker option. He retrieved the petrol can and went to open it by the pile of wood but due to the pressure the can was under from the altitude it splurted out all over the floor. Before anyone had a chance to register what had happened, the fumes from the petrol obviously drifted towards the gas stove merrily flaming away on the other side of the circle and instantly set everything ablaze. Kit who had unfortunately spilt some of the petrol on himself as well, and had not managed to jump away quickly enough enertained a small blaze on his leg as he fled from the petrol can. Luckily due to the quick thinking of Alex who grabbed a pillow and smothered the flames, he was not on fire for very long and fire extinguishers swiftly put out the remainder of the fire leaving us all a little shocked surrounded by a fine white powder.

For a few moments we were all a little unsure as to what we should do with ourselves, but after relocating by about 10 meters and ensuring there were no further potential fire hazards it became fairly obvious that Kits burns needed attending to. We had some very well stocked first aid kits and wound dressing knowledge from various members of the group, however there seemed to be some differing opinions on how burns should be attended to. In the end, after a couple of phonecalls to doctors and relatives back home we cooled the wounds with water, drugged him up, gave him plenty of vodka, then disinfected and dressed them just before he went to bed. They were crudely dressed but it would suffice, and ideally we wanted to make it to Altai the next day so that they could be attended to at the hospital.

Major disaster averted.